Prison for Dover school-lunch funds thief

Thursday

Jan 31, 2013 at 3:15 AMJan 31, 2013 at 9:52 AM

DOVER — Former Dover School District food service director Mark Covell was sentenced Wednesday morning to two to 10 years in state prison for each charge of theft by unauthorized taking, two charges he pleaded guilty to and was ordered to pay restitution for.

By Andrea Bulfinchabulfinch@fosters.com

DOVER — Former Dover School District food service director Mark Covell was sentenced Wednesday morning to two to 10 years in state prison for each charge of theft by unauthorized taking, two charges he pleaded guilty to and was ordered to pay restitution for.

The first charge relates to money stolen between Sept. 6, 2011 and Feb. 4, 2012 and the second charge to thefts between Jan. 4, 2012 to Feb. 24, 2012.

An investigation conducted by school officials, the Dover Police Department, as well as a forensic accounting evaluation completed by a certified public accountant hired by the city who evaluated records back to the 2010-2011 school year, revealed the amounts stolen by Covell were much higher than initially thought.

County Attorney Tom Velardi said $2,183 in students' lunch money was pilfered, and more than $30,000 was taken from vending machines.

It was originally believed there had been about $1,500 taken from lunch money funds and another $1,500 taken from vending machines.

“The aggravating factors are that he was in a position of public trust,” Velardi told presiding Judge John Lewis. “And what's particularly aggravating is that he was literally stealing students' lunch money.”

Paying the ordered restitution does not prohibit the School District, however, from pursuing further legal action. To that end, Superintendent Jean Briggs Badger said the administration continues to work with the city attorney and will explore every avenue.

Covell, 58, of last known address 111 Central St. Apt. 2, Peabody, Mass., was employed by the city for some 20 years in his role with responsibilities of account and record keeping for funds brought in through the school lunch program and through vending machine sales, monies Covell was specifically in charge of removing.

Covell was also in charge of the daily deposit sheets. Discrepancies in amounts on those sheets raised suspicion among coworkers in February 2012, who then brought the issue to light.

Business administrator Michael Limanni provided those sheets to the Dover Police Department, which launched an investigation.

During that time, Covell was cooperative, Velardi said, though he was confronted multiple times in order to gain truthful information. Covell minimized the extent of his stealing, telling detectives that amounts on record sheets were off due to a computer glitch. He finally admitted to stealing money stored in a desk drawer after collection when he was further questioned as to how a computer glitch could have caused such long-term discrepancies.

Police had also pre-loaded a vending machine with a specific amount of money and discovered Covell had been deflating the amount he admitted to taking in order to mitigate criminal conduct.

Following the hearing, Velardi told Foster's Daily Democrat the School District had numerous “fail safes” in place and that actions such as Covell's are impossible to really know as there's no way to prevent someone within that fail-safe system from abusing it.

To the School District's credit, he said, there were plenty of checks and balances in place that caught the issue and Briggs Badger said it was the proactive approach taken with those checks and balances in place that helped the fraud be discovered and stopped.

“There's not much else someone could have done,” Velardi said.

The district is also insured against employee fraud through Primex and “have been covered since day one,” Briggs Badger said.

Since Covell's departure, the food service program has been outsourced to a company called Cafe Services,

“It's turned out to be a positive change,” Briggs Badger said.

During the hearing, Judge Lewis stated Dover police did an excellent job in their investigation, and Velardi echoed that sentiment saying their work was fantastic.

He said white collar crimes such as these are often difficult to investigate and prosecute but that everyone involved in solving this crime did a really great job.